Due to the development in culture technique of cells and tissue, analyzing (diagnosing), from various viewpoints, cultured-cells or the like extracted from various specimen has become readily accessible. Further, the progress in tissue engineering has accelerated the development of regenerative medical technique for regenerating parts of a body that are actually lost, and regenerative medical practice utilizing such technique for clinical application has also become common and has been already applied to regenerated skin and the like.
However, further development in regenerative medical practice or diagnosis at the cell (or tissue) level requires production of a cell culture product (including cultured tissue, and hereinafter alike) of a desired form, structure and pattern (hereinafter collectively refers to as a “pattern”). In recent years, in order to culture cells to a state closer to living organism, attempts have been made to form a shape and structure that are the same as living organism.
For example, Japanese Patent Publications H2-84174, H6-335381 and 2002-355031; and Japanese Translation No. 2003-527615 of PCT International Application (WO01/070389) disclose cell culture plates, on which a pattern is formed with a functional group, polymer membrane, cell-growth promoting molecule or cell adhesion promoting agent; to which cells readily adhere, and methods for forming the cell pattern. In addition, Japanese Patent Publication 2004-105043 discloses a technique for patterning a hydrophilic region on a cell culture plate, applying a non-cell-adhesive treatment to the regions other than the patterned region on the plate, and selectively forming a cell pattern in the pattern region.